TPC-Journal-V1-Issue1

64 The Professional Counselor \ Volume 1, Issue 1 Four primary research questions were addressed in this study: 1. What are the types of services used by parents of children with special needs? 2. How effective are services in reducing stress levels of such parents? 3. How effective are services in increasing the coping skills of parents? 4. What are some of the needs of parents which may be met by counseling services? Method There were two major parts to this research. The first involved distribution of a survey to parents of children with special needs and the second involved an extensive interview with a representative parent of a child with special needs. In the first part of the study a survey was used to collect data for approximately one year. Potential respondents included parents and/or primary caregivers of preschool or school-age children with special needs who resided in a Midwestern state. No restriction was placed on the potential respondents based on the type or number of special needs their child had. Participants were recruited through contact with organizations for families of children with special needs (e.g., local associations for learning disabilities, pervasive developmental disabilities, and physical disabilities) and snowball sampling with assistance of professionals at local public schools who work with children with special needs and their parents. An online survey, the primary means of data collection, was created using a commercial website (www. surveymonkey.com), and potential respondents were directed to the survey webpage from either the websites of the organizations or by typing in the website address found on a distributed survey invitation flyer. A paper version of the survey was prepared for participants from a university clinic for speech and hearing. The second part of the study involved an individual follow-up interview. Initially, the intent was to garner enough participants for a focus group activity. Unfortunately, however, of all the survey respondents, only one expressed interest in participating in a focus group. Therefore, this respondent was selected and interviewed in order to explore the stressors, challenges, and supports available for the parents in greater depth. The interview was audio-taped and transcribed by the investigator. Results There were a total of 74 respondents. Among the respondents, 70 (94.6%) completed the survey online and 4 (5.4%) completed the paper form of the survey. Selected survey items and the resultant data are shown in Table 1. Table 1 Selected Survey Items and the Resultant Data Survey Items No. of Responses % Responses Items for all the respondents ( N = 74) How would you rate your degree of stress on the following scale? In the last month? Very low 0 0.0 Low 8 10.8 Moderate 22 29.7 High 33 44.6 Very High 9 12.2 In the last year? Very low 0 0.0 Low 5 6.8 Moderate 23 31.1 High 24 32.4 Very High 21 28.4